It was 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning May 23, when a scooter and motorcycle were both in the outside lane of the Julia Tuttle Causeway heading toward Miami Beach. That's when The Florida Highway Patrol says the motorcyclist rear ended the scooter. Both drivers lost control and were thrown off, dying instantly. Daryl Williams, a Miami Gardens resident who was fishing alongside the Causeway, was hit by the motorcycle and died later at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Listen here:

Listen

Listening...

/

7:40

The scene of the accident became a crime scene, as is customary in traffic accidents that cause the death of one or several individuals. Traffic was closed eastbound in the Julia Tuttle Causeway for several hours, forcing thousands of commuters to look for alternative routes. The effect of this closure was felt way beyond Miami Beach and Downtown Miami. In fact, it caused traffic jams all the way to Broward County. It serves as the latest example of just how interconnected--and vulnerable--our transportation system is to disruption.

Related Content

Car radios told Miami drivers Tuesday morning about the fatal crash on the Julia Tuttle Causeway – and they appreciated its gravity. But many didn’t understand how that accident could paralyze traffic throughout Miami.

Monday is the 25th anniversary of Fort Lauderdale’s Sun Trolley system, and the celebration promises to be a multi-sensory experience.

The eye-catching red-and-yellow trolleys run on eight routes through Fort Lauderdale, taking riders to the beach, shopping and work. By the end of the month, they'll have a new app and website to make seeing routes and tracking transit easier.

It's intended to connect the MacArthur Causeway with I-95 and the Dolphin Expressway, but a project to improve I-395 has divided Miami-Dade leaders and the Florida Department of Transportation. And with FDOT's selection of a project contractor on Friday, local leaders say the state transportation agency has work to do to bridge an ideological gap.

How South Florida gets around, or doesn't, is increasingly a matter of public debate. Climbing commuting times, more tolls and long-promised but never delivered public transportation projects like BayLink are pushing our collective patience. It costs commuters money and costs the economy lost productivity.

As the region has grown across political boundaries, transportation planning has not kept pace.